This is definitely a meal I grew up on and loved it! A mixture of sweet and savoury explosions UMMMM! Ackee and Saltfish is a traditional Jamaican dish and is pretty simple to make you can eat it with rice, bread, boiled/fried dumpling. Saltfish is salted cod and can be purchased from your local food market or supermarket, Ackee is a fruit that mainly grows in the Caribbean in particular Jamaica. Plantain is a sweet fruit from the family of bananas, It puts the icing on the cake for this dish! This meal takes just over an hour and will be worth every one of those minutes you spend creating this dish!
ACKEE & SALTFISH
serves: approx 5
preparation time: 2 hours
cooking time: approx 50 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- Ackee (540g)
- Saltfish (1 pack)
- Onion (1 medium size)
- Garlic (2 cloves)
- Tomatoes (2)
- Scotch Bonnet (1) if you like you can slice the scotch bonnet for an even more fiery taste, you may want to take out the seeds unless you want it to be explosive!
- Bay leaf (2)
- Pimento (2)
- Cloves (2)
- Curry Powder (3/4 table spoons)
- Thyme
- Okra (approx 6) – optional
- Green/yellow/red bell peppers – optional
HOW TO
First we need to take some of the salt out of the fish as we don’t want it to be too salty. Grab the saltfish and put it in a pot with some freshly boiled water from the kettle. We leave for approx and hour and repeat once more.
After a couple of hours empty the water and start to break up the fish using your thumb, the flakes should come off pretty easily once. Slice an onion into small cubes, grater your cloves of garlic. Add some sunflower/vegetable oil to a pot on a hot fire (we want the oil to be hot as we are shallow frying the fish). Once oil is heated add saltfish and keep on stirring as we don’t want it to burn! After approx 5 mins add the chopped onion and garlic, continue to mix for a couple of minutes, if you need to add more oil, do so (we are shallow frying, so not too much!)
Add the 3/4 tablespoons of curry powder, 2 bay leaves, 2 pimentos, 2 cloves, 1 scotch bonnet and thyme, mix for a further 5 mins. Chop 2 tomatoes into small cubes and add to the dish, turn down the fire (between medium/low fire) and put lid on. Add your chopped okra and bell peppers after another 5 minutes. Open ackee, drain and rinse with fresh water, add to dish. As ackee is very delicate we don’t want to mix it too much, otherwise it will lose its shape. What I do is add 1/3 of the tin and stir the saltfish OVER the ackee, shake the pot using the handle. Repeat until all the ackke is in the pot. Leave on the fire for a further 20 minutes and your done!
FRIED DUMPLINGS
makes: approx 20
preparation time: approx 20 minutes
cooking time: approx 20 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- Self rasing flour (350g)
- Water
- Sunflower/vegetable oil
- Sea Salt
HOW TO
Grab a bowl and use approx 350g of self-raising flour were going to add a sprinkle of salt and add small drops of water until you achieve a doughy texture (not too watery or to dry/firm) knead dough until its lovely & soft and not sticky. Sprinkle some flower in a plate as we will placing the dumplings here once rolled. Roll the dough into balls, I make my balls a medium size (about the size of a small egg) so they don’t take too long to long cook repeat until you have a large family of balls.
There are many ways you can fry dumplings I will share with you a simple method using only a little bit of oil. Grab your frying pan and pour JUST enough oil to cover the pan, not too much. We want to have a medium fire going, once the oil is heated turn fire to low as we are going to shallow fry the dumplings. Add dumplings and ensure that each dumpling has direct contact with pan, you may need to do the dumplings in 2 batches depending on the size of your frying pan. Once golden brown turn to ensure even browning over dumpling (approx 20 mins). To make sure the dumpling is cooked, open one up and look in the middle to see if flour is cooked ( If the inside is not cooked the fire is either too high or you’ve made them too big).
PLANTAIN
makes: approx 25
preparation time: 3 minutes
cooking time: 5 minutes
INGREDIENTS
- Ripe plantain (1)
- Sunflower of vegetable oil
Run a knife from top to bottom of the plantain, not too deep. Peel the skin off and cut the plantain into thin slices. Heat a tablespoon of oil in a frying pan, (medium to high) add the plantain. The plantain is frying so shake the handle to ensure they do not burn, check often to make sure there browning nicely. As soon as they brown turn them over, repeat. Once cooked place them in a plate with some kitchen towel to absorb the oil.
Lets Do This #KitchenStyle 
Then dumplings look good! And I’m a big fan of fried plantain too. I never had ackee but I suppose when I get back to Miami and a decent WI supermarket…I might give it a try.
Do try, I’m sure you won’t be disappointed!